An Independent Voice That Advocates For The Classroom Educator Without The Corrupting Politics Tied To Our Union And DOE Leadership.

Monday, September 01, 2014

Chancellor Carmen Farina Declares War On Teachers.

On Sunday, the New York Daily News interviewed Chancellor Carmen Farina and asked her what her goals were for the 2014-15 school year. Not unexpectedly they were the Mayor's pre-k program, higher passing rates on State tests, and more parental involvement. However, when it came to teachers, the Chancellor showed her true colors, she told the Daily News that she will train principals how to terminate teachers they don't want rather than collaborate and support hem. Notice, she didn't say "ineffective teachers" but teachers who principals don't want.

The Chancellor also went after the ATRs by claiming that there will be a dramatic reduction of teachers without a classroom by mid October. Did she mean that the ATRs will be offered vacancies? No, according to the Chancellor, the reduction will be due to the conditions of the new contract that has already resulted in 97 teachers taking the buyout (almost all of them were retiring anyway) and by actively going after ATRs for dubious disciplinary issues.

Interestingly, the Chancellor is full of contradictions as well as she, on one hand, wants principals to properly document teacher actions that can lead to termination while , on the other hand, wants to improve teacher morale. Let's see if you redouble the efforts to target teachers that will improve their morale, what an idiot! I guess the Chancellor believes in the statement "that the beatings will continue until morale improves". Moreover, she claims she wants to improve teacher retention. How can she do that when she refuses to remove vindictive and incompetent administrators that result in high teacher turnover in their schools? Furthermore, class sizes, the largest in the Stace, are not being reduced. Finally, her failure to discontinue the "fair student funding" and freezing already tight school budgets forces principals to hire the "cheapest" and not the "best teachers" for the students basically assures for high teacher turnover going forward..

The Chancellor claims there will be no "forced placement" and that there is mutual consent. However, if a Principal requires that an ATR interview and offer a position, the ATR has no choice but to accept the interview and the position or the DOE will consider that the ATR has resigned. That, to me, is not mutual consent and is a forced placement. What is the union's position? They just close their collective eyes and the disconnected leadership will claim that you must take the position. According to UFT President, Michael Mulgrew, there is a new attitude at the DOE. Yeah, a new attitude as the DOE redouble their efforts to target the classroom teacher, lead by a very disappointing Chancellor..

35 comments:

Anonymous
said...

This woman is absolutely delusional and is also probably in the midst of Alzheimer's, as evidenced by the statement she made this winter about the horrific weather conditions of Winter 2014. By the way, the Principals neither respect nor listen to anything she has to say. They believe that she is out of touch with both the times and reality. Also, they view Ms. Farina as being a mere figurehead who actually has deputies and associates that run the DOE.

I am an ATR who believes that it is time for us to bring a class action suit against the DOE for harassment and for discrimination. This woman is ridiculous. Furthermore, ATRs are not a problem for the Principals because we cover their vacancies and serve as substitutes for them. Also, they don't have to pay for us (Central does) and being that most of us are not going to be hired to be a part of their staff, we are an issue for Ms. Fatima and not them. Why should they care when they have bigger fish to fry than dealing with Ms. Farina's ATR issues ?

We must remember that the Grandma worked for Bloomberg and Klein so anyone who believes that she will be a different chancellor than her predecessors is mistaken. The press releases and affection toward Mulgrew are window dressing, she is someone who removed large numbers of her staff as principal to define the school in her elementary school image. Her comments are consistent with her philosophy.

Her comments are outrageous and telling. They tell me she has absolutely no fear of (or even respect for) our union. Also, why does she want to get rid of us? She's an educator and has to know most of us are competent, experienced teachers. As a new chancellor, her remarks are especially offensive - given right before the start of a new school year, (when she should be giving words of encouragement). As for Mulgrew, I think we have to publicly call him out. (Not in the way he called out anyone against common core.) We have to ask him and embarrass him at every opportunity, until he starts acting as a Union president. Instead of hugging Farina and holding hands with Sharpton, he should be fighting for his most vulnerable constituents -ATRs.

You hit it right on the head. Carmen Farina has been and always will be anti-teacher. Her removal of 80% of her teaching staff when she was a Principal and how easily she fit into and advanced in the Joel Klein administration tells all.

She always gets her wayShe told me: this is how its gonna go down (yeah)and now there's no escapeThere ain't nobody here to save me now.

As she comes closerThe air gets colderSending shivers down my spineAnd I feel her hands all over my jobAnd I know I'm running out of time.

That girl is a killerKillerKillerShe'll hit you and run.

Girl is just a killer killerYou know she's only it in for the funI'm barely breathing on the floorstill beggin' her for M.O.R.E.,oh what a sweet way to dieThat girl is a killer killerI'll see you on the unemployment line.

forefathersPERHAPS SHE IS DELUSIONAL OR MAYBE OLD AGE HAS SET IN..SHE IS AN OXYMORON.....But I agree with Bronx ATR Where is the union?? they are worst than FARINA...I don't know what to believe anymore. We have no choice but to let the year play out and see how many ATRS are placed..We work at psychiatric centers and Farina speaks as someone who escaped the white jacket

This is business as usual. Why surprised? The only way is if someone's hand is forced. Somebody Has to do something serious that will cause a reaction from the Doe and uft. Other than that, need to just quit. Sad to say...

Look at the contract they sent us via the UFT newspaper. Nowhere does it say the extra $2000 for 1A and 1B. Now if you check the UFT website, like magic, there is a new chart for September 2014, where the $2000 is added. This is a pitiful excuse for a contract and a pitiful way to earn a living. I am all for making this more public, every ounce of it.

As an ATR, I went to each school, every week, and begged people not to vote for this. But the school rep, every week, told me how stupid I was. We got the retro 8% that Bloomberg wouldn't give us, we aren't paying medical, we are getting raises going forward, we won, etc. We will lose the medical next year, the 8% isn't really if its not coming until 2020 and if we choose to leave we lose it, we now see we are about to get terminated if an ATR, raises are way below cost of living...

Don't worry people. Principals have been been going to workshops how to create a paper trail on teachers for years. An ex principal told me this. All she's doing is shooting herself in the foot by publicizing this. The lawsuits will abound and they will leave us alone.

Juan, I went to different schools as well, I brought the pertinent literature with me, I engaged every teacher I could in conversation about the contract. I pointed out every single thing you list and more. Most of the older teachers, with a few hopeless exceptions, got it. They said they would vote against the contract. The newbie teacher larvae, the ones who know it all and rarely deigned to speak to me, were all for it. I've been asking teachers ever since if they voted for it, and why. In line at the grocery, at the vet's office, waiting in any line at all--I asked them. Those who voted for it, without exception, admitted THEY HAD NOT READ IT. They were just so thrilled at the prospect of a contract that they went for the bait with no more brains than a trout going for a lure. They excused their blatant stupidity (no wonder teachers have a bad rep for being dummies) by saying that "if they rejected this contract, the union and city would get mad at them and offer a worse contract as a punishment." Are you a child waiting to be spanked for daring not to take a big spoonful of crap they call "medicine", or are you a thinking adult? When I let them know that they were stupid and why by voting for the contract, they found another place to be. They did not want to discuss it. Fools.

Chaz and everyone else, please remember when reading the article that this is the daily news and they will cut and edit the interview to make it appear as though farina is anti atr but she is just speaking that many of the teachers will now be teaching in the classes and not wondering...the idiot daily news article is ofcourse bull sh**

An ATR was at my school today. When we had our meeting in the library, the staff was involved with just welcoming everyone back, etc. We got into a discussion about what to do in certain scenarios with kids. The poor ATR stood up and started talking (broken English of course) and while we were all trying to understand what he was saying, he just kept going and going and going about nothing and nothing and nothing. It was terrible. The crazy thing was that we all looked at each other and said, yup another ATR at the school. ATR's are just to obvious. Here are the top 5 ways to spot an ATR. 1. Dress attire. Often wearing clothes from the 80's or possibly 90's. Very worn shoes and strange patterns on shirts. 2. Broken English. 9 put of 10 ATR's cannot speak proper English. Very difficult to understand. 3. Paraphernalia. Most carry 2 or 3 newspapers and utilize cell phones to keep busy or occupied. 4. Lunch. Majority of ATR's bring some sort of bagged lunch/leftovers which smell horrid. No way an ATR is springing for a really nice lunch outside the bldg. 5. Milking. Can navigate and describe how he/she will get through an entire year by milking the system and surviving by floating along. These are the top 5 ways to identify an ATR. Thank you.

Hey ChazYou point out the contradictions in what she says, but we know that you look at what they do, not what they say. As for Carmen Farina, she was happy to implement the vicious policies of Joel Klein. She is the usual NYC supervisory scum that sees itself as a separate and superior class.You hoped that it would get better, but I think it's not going to get better for the ATR's and the teachers. I say this with sadness because I know teachers still in the grip of this lunacy.

Your description sounds more like the teaching fellows than ATRs and yes, since ATRs are in their 50's and 60's they do not wear the latest attire. However, they are still superior to all the "newbies" who will not be in the classroom in five years.

Number one way to spot an idiot read anonymous 627 ...this is one major reason ATRs are in trouble Fools like anon 627 are in our schools, call themselves educators just because they got a little education. NO UNITY SO SAD

The way to tell a rookie newbie is he doesn't have the integrity or humility to seek out the veterans like ATR's in order to learn from a teacher who has been teaching since before they were born; therefore, they will remain neophytes and will never develop into good teachers.

Anon 6:07, you are just what I needed FOR A GOOD LAUGH, once I got past your appalling lack of empathy for other human beings and your self-assignment as the fashion police in your school. What a hoot!

I laughed so hard, I got tears in my eyes as I read your poorly written hit piece on ATRs. It was full of grammatical errors and misspellings. Take it from someone who scored a perfect 300 on the L.A.S.T. exam essay, you can't write your pathetic way out of a wet paper bag. Yet you would deign to throw stones from (exceedingly thin) glass houses, you self-deluded cretin.

While moving the books in a dirty storeroom today, I was afraid of getting dust on my very stylish attire and expensive ($200) shoes, but I did the assigned work with the 2 other ATRs there. They were also just as stylishly attired and groomed. By the way, I speak 3 languages, English being my native tongue. No broken English, here, daaaarling.

I don't carry newspapers around because it looks unprofessional and I am a professional. You, on the other hand, sound like a total slob. You probably get your clothes from a Goodwill bin you raid at night, have a gut hanging out over your belt and hair styled by the pet groomer who operates out of his garage down your block.

Yeah, I bring lunch from home. My lunch is a lot better nutritionally than the fat/sugar/roach parts "really nice lunch" you snort down during your lunch period. And who can say that YOUR lunch isn't of the liquid variety? Sure sounds like it might be.

If you want to continue your career as a clumsy hate-filled TROLL, you'd be better off taking your pathetic drivel to a more appropriate venue, such as Stormfront.com. The people on this blog can only stand so much asininities. They have been tolerant to give you your one chance, but sweetie pie, it's time for you to shuffle off to Buffalo. Don't let the screen door hit you in your ample a@@.

Today in chalk beat there was a story about how many UPK teachers had to get fingerprinted. Well ... There are a bunch of ex-DoE teachers who would love to work for UPK but can't because being dismissed as a probationary teacher puts you on the famous "ineligible" list. Found this out the hard way when I got an after school job but was denied by the DOE. Reason cited: a U rating. It's really insane.

Arrogance -/ you just described many of the teachers I run into in the various schools to which I am assigned. I am appalled by what I see going I. In the classrooms - the clothing, food and newspapers are irrelevant.

Perhaps someone here is knowledgeable on this question. If I go to a mandated interview and receive documentation that I attended the interview, must I go back to a second interview and or demo lesson?